Saturday, October 9

We Interrupt Our Normal Programming For Some..... Cycling!

Something you may not know about me is that I'm a bit of a cycling nut! My partner used to be on the circuit many years ago, and we both still have an extreme interest in all the major cycling events, team politics, stats, riders, and various forms of the sport.

So, it was VERY exciting to have the World Cycling Championships hosted just an hour down the road from us (for the first time in Australia), last weekend in Geelong.

Apart from the 3 major tours (France, Italy, Spain), this is the pinacle of pro cycling (in my opinion anyway), and the best chance we've ever had to see some of the cycling world's biggest stars close up!

Nicole over at Noodles and Waffles is a cycling nut too, and I promised I'd take lots of photos..... so here are just a few (I took over 70, but will only bore you with 9 or so here!).

We were lucky enough to get a good position near the top of the major climb, so they were going slower and really putting in all sorts of huge efforts as they came past us every lap! And, it was a gorgeous, sunny, fresh Spring day.... so a glorious time was had by all of us!

And, last but not least, a slightly blurry pic of our Aussie hero Cadel Evans, who was the defending World Champion going into this ride.

The course didn't suit him (we knew that going in), but he rode himself into the ground, bridged quite a few gaps, led 3 or 4 attacks, and at the end of more than 5 hrs on the road, when he was cramping and basically stuffed, tried to do his best to help another Aussie rider Alan Davis (who ended up finishing 3rd).

Cadel officially finished 17th, but was in a bunch of riders who only ended up a few metres behind the winner! A great effort!! And, Alan scored only our 3rd medal in a World Championship... (Robbie McEwan has a silver, and of course Cadel has a gold).

There you go Nicole! I know you were watching them on TV at probably some ungodly hour of the morning, so I hope these pics give you something extra to ogle!

9 comments:

The only cycle race I have watched in real life is when my hubby did a charity cycle for the Homeless from Victoria Park in East London to Priory Park in Southend-on-Sea... a distance of about 65 miles. That was many years ago... nearly 15 years!!!!

The female world championship was won by Giorgia Bronzini!!!The last day of the tour in Italy everything goes in stand by until the race is over and there is a winner. It's usually in Milan, and it's amazing because for a day it looks like another city!!

That's such a wonderful way to spend a day, and the weather looks glorious.

I must admit that I'm a recent convert to watching cycling ... it's the beauty of Le Tour that has captured my hook, line and sinker. I can't believe how interesting and exciting I now find the sport (I think I only used to watch it for the beautiful scenery ... haha).

Cadel is SOOO awesome - it would have been great to see them all in action! :)

I'm so jealous. We should have planned this better because I'm pretty sure I could have seen you on television.

What a hill!!! It just killed everyone. Isn't it amazing how close and fast the cyclist ride. That always amazes me.

I think the thing I love most about cycling is the domestiques or the cyclist who realizes that they're not going to win so they give everything that's left to help their teammates. Can you imagine what could get done if everyone adopted this philosophy?!?

Charmaine, the Kenyans are just amazing runners aren't they! Good on them too... some of them support massive families with the money from their running.

I'm guessing Giorgia Bronzini is Italian Bobbi!! Yay for Italy (if the Aussies can't win!). We have a tour over here where most of the big riders come (the Tour Down Under), but it's not as important as yours or the other 2 biggies!!

Tracey I have to agree, the scenery during the Tour de France is so utterly amazing.... simply breathtaking. I'm sure lots of people watch it for that! I stay up until around 2 in the morning watching when it's on, so I'm pretty tired at work for those few weeks!

Nicole, I could have waved at you!! I had bright pink on too, so I would have been fairly easy to spot - lol.

I agree about the teamwork, it's amazing to see what some do simply to give their team-mates the best possible 'ride' and chance of finishing well. I so admire them for their grit and determination when they don't really get any accolades for what they do.

The Contador scandal is VERY interesting isn't it.... it's gone a bit quiet over here about it.....just waiting to see what happens. Next year will be extremely interesting.

I think Schleck will come out firing! He didn't come over for the World Champs, but his brother Frank was in the race, and finished somewhere at the front with Cadel I think.

Great to see Norway win their first World Champs... Thor Hushovd is a terrific cyclist!

man i miss a couple of days in the blogosphere and you post a cycle special :(AWESOME that you could just nip out and see the race - our island is a little isolated some times.

Such a shame that "channel" cannot get it's scheduling and advertising right to let us see these events on the teli. I mean the tour of Britain - come on !At least they have sorted Le Tour out - and our house, like yours, also lacks sleep those 21 days :)

Hey Lee, I didn't know you were a cycling fan too!! How great! I'd thought I'd bore the pants off everyone except Nicole with this post - so glad to find some fellow cycling nuts!

It's a shame cycling isn't as well regarded over here as it is in Europe where the big cyclists are all regarded as absolute massive superstars and the pro tour is so idolised and well received.

We'll get there hopefully.... we might even have our own pro team one of these days. The new Pegasus team is apparently in the making for us, so that will be great if we get one up and running in the big tours!

Linda - I think the UCI doesn't know what to do about Contador which is why it is so quiet. Alessandro Colò received a one-year ban for eating meat that was contaminated with Clenbuterol. It'll be interesting to see how this whole thing impacts the 2011 season.

I'm so happy to see other cycling fans liked your post and it wasn't just me.

Cycling Fans - Check out Steephill.tv. They have videos for a significant number of the races. You can watch them live (which is what I usually do) or after the fact. They also have lots of pictures, results, etc. It's the best cycling website I've been able to find.

Hi! My name is Linda, and since I was little, I've loved colour, pattern, and beautiful things! As I grew up, my passion for creating my 'own little world' within my bedroom/cubby-house, graduated to creating my own soulful homes later on.

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